Unwired: 50,000 customers, cash down to $21.8 million

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 27 April 2006 19:08

IT Industry - Strategy

See also: Unwired reports 42,200 subs at 31 December

Unwired has reported results for the first quarter saying it lifted customer numbers by 13 percent and revenue by 12 percent. Unwired reported $7.051 million in customer revenue for the quarter. The company had 48,434 customers as at 31 March and has since passed 50,000. Net operating cash outflow (operating costs minus revenue) was $3.431 million for the quarter compared to $2.106 million for the previous quarter.

However cash reserves fell from $29.4 million in December to $21.9 million at the end of March. Capital expenditure increased from $1.335 million in the previous quarter and consisted of $2.428 million for the Melbourne network build and $1.501 million for expansion of Unwired's Sydney network to meet customer demand. This consisted of capacity upgrades to existing sites and the addition of three new base station sites in Sydney's inner suburbs.

Unwired expects to complete the first phase of its Melbourne network build early in the second half of the 2006 calendar year.

The company has previously said its Sydney operation would breakeven at 70,000 subscribers, but it is no longer quoting this figure, saying: "Separate reporting and breakeven forecasts for a Sydney standalone business are no longer meaningful as the company continues to expand its business into other markets...We have centralised operational, support, and management functions to support both cities and in the future other major centres. Our financial reporting reflects the centralised nature of these functions with Unwired reporting on a consolidated basis as material portions of revenue and costs can only be arbitrarily allocated to any particular region." However it has not given a new overall breakeven subscriber number.